The coastal town of Gwadar has become the latest epicenter of the intensifying crisis of enforced disappearances plaguing the oppressed Baloch people under the brutal occupation of Pak security forces.
Reportedly, more than 25 Baloch civilians, including students and political activists, were abducted by Pak military and intelligence personnel in raids across the Surbandhan area of Gwadar district earlier this month.
While some of the disappeared individuals were later released, the whereabouts of Sameer, son of Hamza, Mohsin, son of Rahim Baksh, and Niaz, son of Abdaal, remain unknown. Given the nature and history of the Army the victim’s families fear of torture, extrajudicial killings or indefinite secret detentions.
“The Pak forces barged into our homes like thugs in the middle of the night and dragged away our sons”, recalled an elderly resident of Surbandhan, further adding, “We have no idea if they are even alive”.
The wave of abductions in Gwadar follows the enforced disappearance of Muhammad Waheed and Nusrat on May 22 by Pakistani personnel, in another chilling addition to the thousands of such illegal abductions across Pak-occupied-Balochistan.
For the beleaguered Baloch community, enforced disappearances have become a brutal tool of repression and collective punishment by the Army to crush their struggle for self-determination and human rights.
Enforced disappearances have plunged the entire region into unending trauma and suffering and it is meant to erase the national identity by spreading fear.
Despite repeated appeals and protests, the Pak military has shown no signs of relenting in its scorched-earth campaign against the Baloch population, which has faced decades of marginalization, resource plundering, and violent suppression of dissent.
Baloch activists have urged the international community and global human rights bodies to take decisive action against the grave human rights violations being perpetrated by Pak forces under the guise of counter-insurgency operations.